This invention relates to tufting machines, and more particularly to a multiple-needle tufting machine adapted to form high and low cut pile tufts in a base fabric.
Heretofore, in the art of tufting, fabric having patterned areas of high cut pile and low cut pile has been formed by cut pile looper hooks, each hook having a pair of vertically spaced bills, the lower bill being provided with a spring clip, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,126 of Roy T. Card issued June 23, 1964.
These double-billed cut pile hooks were used in cooperation with a pattern controlled yarn feed. When a long length of yarn was fed to the looper, the loop was seized on the lower bill and cut by the cooperating knife to form a high cut pile tuft. When the yarn feed was starved by the pattern control, the yarn loop caught on the lower bill was pulled off of the lower bill, past the yielding spring clip, and subsequently caught upon the upper bill, where it was cut by the same knife. It has been difficult to utilize the double-billed cut pile hook because the same knife must cooperate with both the lower and upper bills to cut all loops formed on both bills.
Another method of forming patterned fabrics having high and low cut pile tufts is to initially produce a fabric having a uniform high cut pile, and then with manual shears carve out selected areas in the cut pile tufts to form patterned low pile tufted areas. This latter method is often used on scatter rugs, bath sets, and other tufted fabrics of relatively small areas, in contrast to large carpets.